“I wanted it to be
book to sit down w
pour a glass of win
read recipes and sto
and daydream abou
Shore,” says Debo
Smith, near her Po
Pleasant Beach
home.

a teen, Smith worked at Jack’sMusic Shoppe (which is still go-ing strong), and used to sing inamateur theatrical productions.

Smith was raised by hermother after her parents’ earlydivorce. “My mom was not muchof a cook,” she says. “She didn’tenjoy it. Her favorite book was[Peg Bracken’s 1960] The I Hateto Cook Cookbook. I have a copybecause it’s so nostalgic for me.I got interested in food aroundcollege age and started experi-menting with recipes andcooking for friends, be-cause I felt a lack there.”The mother of twoteenage boys “whoplay football and are bigeaters, but not foodies,”Smith, 50, loves to cook.“My younger one would com-plain I make too much gourmetstuff,” she says, “which wouldcrack me up, because I used tocomplain we ate too much fastfood when I was little.”How did she whittle down themany hundreds of Shore eateriesto a select 50?

“First,” she says, “I narrowed
it to towns that actually touched
the ocean. Then I had to have
iconic places, like the Knife and
Fork Inn, the Lobster House in
Cape May and the Inlet Café in
Atlantic Highlands.

“I also wanted interesting newplaces, like Porta in Asbury Parkand the Diving Horse in Avalon.And I wanted places that weresuper casual, like the Chickenor the Egg in Beach Haven andBubba’s Dogs in Sea Isle City.”“People think it’s easy to getrestaurants to participate,” sheadds. “It’s not so easy. Somenever got back to me. One saidtheir chef would never allowtheir recipes to be published. Isuggested they create a uniquerecipe for the book. They didn’tgo for it. Some maybe thoughtit was a ladies’ auxiliary publica-tion or something. But to be fair,they’re getting hit up all the timefor all kinds of things.”

● COOKBOOKS

50 RECIPES, 50 SHORE EATERIES

Deborah Smith of JerseyBites.com captures the cuisines of her
beloved seaside, where she grew up and still lives. By Eric Levin

about a year ago, Deborah Smith received a call from
a book publisher wondering if
she’d be interested in creating a
cookbook of 50 recipes from 50

In all, 29 towns are represented. Cape May has the most
restaurants (five); Asbury Park
and Atlantic City finish second,
with four each.

Smith’s Shore heritage goes
back to her mother’s father, John
Beverly Anderson, who around
1960 created the Tradewinds
Beach Club in Sea Bright, “which
was a trailer and a sign on the
street,” Smith says. “He later
sold it to someone who built it up
to what it is today.” Her grandfather, known as Bev, also owned
a record store on Broad Street
in Red Bank called Anderson’s.
Smith’s mother, Lonnie, worked
there as a teenager. Lonnie’s
younger brother, Smith’s Uncle
Jack, later won Bev’s blessing to
open a record, sheet music and
musical instrument store across
the street from Anderson’s. As
eat & drink yx